Texas Sports Nation // Dynamo

MLS commissioner hopeful for full season

Major League Soccer is in a unique position.

Unlike the MLB or National Women's Soccer League, its season started prior to March 11, when the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. But it suspended its season far earlier than the NBA or most European soccer leagues, which were months into their respective seasons.

Because of that, MLS commissioner Don Garber said he hopes to play a full season even if that means a delayed league schedule.

“We've only gone through two weeks of our season so our plan is to play as many games as we possibly can,” Garber said on ESPN’s “Get Up” on Tuesday. “We have a 34-week season, we've only played two, and we're in consultation with our teams and with all others to try to figure out what do we need to do to get back as quickly as we can, ensuring that we're prioritizing the safety of our fans and our staffs and obviously our players.”

That could mean pushing the end of the regular season back from October to November, and moving the MLS Cup to mid-December, while maintaining last year’s single elimination postseason format.

“Can we play behind closed doors? Are there unique and creative concepts that we could have?” Garber said. “Could we have regional play? How can we play something that might be fun and exciting during this postponement period that might be very, very different whether it's unique and fun ideas or they're more competitive concepts.”

Dynamo president John Walker has been in contact with team presidents across the league as they share perspectives and experiences during the suspension. He’s also been privy to conversations about how the league will move forward.

“We've been on several calls when there have been some high level conversations about what a season looks like given that we're not going to be able to play until, at the earliest, sometime in May,” Walker said. “What they're asking of us as clubs is to identify all of the available dates in the stadium where we can potentially have matches to try and get in as many games as possible. We're still hopeful that we can get in a full season, but time will tell.”

Once the league sets a date to resume play, the transition begins.

“That'll set things in motion for us on getting the stadium ready. We've been keeping it ready, but...our concessionaire is going to have to order food because we gave a lot of that away when we went into the suspension and certainly the players are gonna have to get into shape,” Walker said.

“They have home workout routines, but there's nothing like the timing and the feeling of playing with a full group. The commissioner is saying three or four weeks of training before they can actually have the first match so that everyone is in game shape.”